Ninth Place: The Quickest Cars of 2007: $25,000 to $30,000

Pontiac engineers apparently have much freer hands than their Chevy cohorts. Handed the same ancient "W" front-drive platform and 5.3-liter V-8 used in the Impala SS, they conjured what one staffer called "arguably the most entertaining sedan Pontiac has ever offered." The Impala SS is a tick faster than the GXP due to a shorter final drive, but the trade-offs in drivability make the decision between them duck soup. The GXP still runs from naught to 60 in 5.7 seconds, and with 323 pound-feet of torque on tap, it is plenty deft in traffic.

With a stated purpose of creating a "car to run with BMWs," engineers had to seek solutions outside the norm. The most impressive and efficacious of these was the fitment of 255mm-wide, sticky Bridgestone tires in front to compliment narrower, 225mm-wide tires at the rear in order to combat endemic torque steer and understeer. It works, and even a little bit of oversteer can be coaxed from the car. Other tweaks include forged aluminum wheels, Bilstein monotube front struts, a larger rear anti-roll bar, and a 0.4-inch reduction in static ride height, which, in addition to lowering the center of gravity, increases the effective spring rate.

The interior receives comfortable and supportive seats in keeping with the GXP's newfound lateral prowess; a dashboard-mounted g-meter will quantitatively express the car's new moves. Especially when blessed with fire-sale pricing from the General, the GXP is an interesting and legitimate American alternative.

Most 2.5XTs we see around town have various roof racks, cargo areas stuffed with slobbering Newfoundlands or gardening crap, and they are nearly always filthy. We wonder whether the owners bought the car because they liked the alloy wheels, or whether they are consciously upping the sleeper factor.

What's not to love about an inexpensive little truck that duplicates a $45K Porsche Boxster's quarter-mile time? Per our roofline height standards, the Forester is an SUV, although it's based on the Impreza, the smallest vehicle Subaru sells. As with the Legacy 2.5GT, Subaru fitted the 2.5-liter engine used in the WRX STI but attached a smaller turbo and less-aggressive tune. The result is 224 horsepower and 226 pound-feet of torque from the turbocharged-and-intercooled horizontally opposed four, feeding a full-time four-wheel-drive system. Earlier XTs made less horsepower but were more than a half-second quicker to 60 mph, due to shorter gearing; given today's gas prices, we'll take the taller gearing.

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The Forester's powertrain is essentially the same as the one found in the WRX, a car that would have just snuck on to the bottom of this list based on its performance. But, since the WRX starts under $25K, we'll save it for a cheaper quickest-cars list.

Decent ground clearance makes the Forester at least competent off-road should you be a rogue who occasionally sullies truck tread with dirt. The XT's increased ride height, combined with all-terrain tires, can create unsettling moments, but that's only because its bountiful thrust encourages you to drive the wheels off the thing. If you find a patch of dirt to play with, enjoy a chassis that treats oversteer as a tool, not an enemy.

With a surfeit of performance SUVs on the market, all powered with ample cubes and many with forced induction, the 2.5XT is a great choice if you want a fast, flexible vehicle with decent gas mileage (we averaged 25 mpg) that avoids the ire of the Prius set. And should you want to smoke a Boxster S, power upgrades are just a boost adjustment away.

Nissan helped write the book on how to bring a sports car to the mass market with the original 240Z and stayed true to the formula with the 350Z: front-engine; rear-wheel drive; wheel-spinning, melodious power; a lithesome exterior; and an affordable sticker. It worked the first time and has helped Nissan sell the bejeezus out of the Z nameplate again. We applaud Nissan for selling a base model under $30K, as the car can cost closer to $40K clad with myriad options. You lose nothing that makes the Z a satisfying package in the base model, although the gold-colored, four-piston calipers on the Brembo brakes and forged wheels included on the Track model are admittedly tasty pieces.

We are not alone is singing the praises of the VQ35 all-aluminum V-6 engine, powering the 350Z and most other Nissan and Infiniti products. Ward's AutoWorld has named it one of the world's best engines every year the 3.5 has been in production. It also boasts the most distinctive exhaust note among mass-market vehicles in recent years. For 2007, the Z's 3.5—shared with the Infiniti G35—is 80-percent new, boasting six more horsepower, better midrange torque, and a 500-rpm higher redline (now 7500). Responsive, and broad, the V-6's eager-to-please power band encourages frequent use of all 306 horsepower and 268 pound-feet of torque. We are eager to abuse and came away with 5.2 seconds to 60 mph a 13.7-second quarter-mile time.

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The first order of driving business is to disengage the traction control, allowing full experience of the viscous limited-slip differential; it's no surprise that the 350Z is a favorite of drifting competitors. The electronic throttle won't permit concurrent application of throttle and brake, so should you want to heat the hides a little before your run up the on-ramp, we've been told that if one was to stupidly, illegally, and never advisably disconnect the brake-light switch from the back of the brake pedal, you can play John Force until the fire department arrives.

Should you want to accelerate much, much faster, the 350Z provides grassroots enthusiasts a platform that is eminently tweakable, and the aftermarket has responded with countless powertrain and suspension options.

We gave a ride to an attractive young lass in a Legacy 2.5GT who was quick to compliment us on our "nice car" and quick to wrinkle her nose in befuddlement when we told her it was a Subaru. All grown up, Subaru has moved from making quirky-but-good transportation for the professorial set to cars that appeal to the mainstream.

The 2.5GT doesn't just look the sports-sedan part-it hauls the bacon and streaks to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds. 243 horsepower and 241 lb-ft of turbocharged torque is provided by the same 2.5-liter engine used in the WRX STI, but in this case, it's fitted with a smaller turbocharger. When mated to a five-speed manual transmission, the subtle GT is an effective stoplight sniper, launching with ferocity unexpected by other motorists, or oftentimes you, thanks to Subaru's all-wheel-drive system. Once at cruising speed, it's simple to forget about the car's accelerative cunning, such are the fine interior materials and comfortable ride. Should the perfidy of an aggressive SUV driver cause you alarm, however, clear road is just a downshift away.

We like the way the 2.5GT looks and drives, but we don't so much love the reliability record of the example in our long-term vehicle fleet, which suffered some drivability and mechanical issues.

First the good: For under $29K, the four-door Impala SS delivers the same 0-to-60-mph and quarter-mile time as Pontiac's Solstice GXP, with an even faster trap speed. Other than SS badges and aluminum wheels, it looks like every other fleet-favorite Impala, encouraging frequent and satisfying slayings of Teutonic lane poachers. The SS boasts an aluminum-block LS4 V-8, a smaller sibling to the Corvette engine that makes 303 horsepower and 323 pound-feet of torque along with all the right sounds.

But we'd rather drive a V-6 Impala. Italians have an adjective to describe their vision of the American experience: Americanata. This term, inclusive of a sense of exaggeration, is applied to movies like Rambo and all-you-can-eat buffet dinners, and it is readily applied to the Impala SS. The SS is value priced. It's fast. It's ample. It's soft. Turn off the traction control and the 5.3-liter V-8 will incinerate one or both of the front tires until you lift. Normally we applaud such buffoonery, but the experience is ultimately unsatisfying, and the limitations of an 18-year-old, front-wheel-drive chassis proffer an unsatisfying and sometimes unnerving experience. The SS's body ducks and bobs like that's a design feature.

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Unlucky engineers were handed a thorny set of ingredients including front-wheel drive, unequal-length driveshafts, and a V-8, and the resulting stew is poisoned with torque steer. Leave the traction control on and the front brakes take turns arresting wheel movement, with a resulting jig from the steering wheel; turn it off and irregular surfaces elicit similar behavior. Unlike the Grand Prix GXP, with which it shares chassis and engine, the SS's suspension, bushings, and concomitant hardware are just not up to the V-8's prodigious grunt. The mechanically similar Monte Carlo SS would likely have made this list as well, but when we asked GM for one to test, we were told: "We are not interested in sending you that car."

Worried that we might not heap praise, GM? Come on, we so enjoyed the Impala SS you sent.

Pontiac assured us for years that it "Builds Excitement," which was apparently extra helpings of plastic body cladding, under which we never found much real excitement. The Solstice GXP, however, gives us plenty to be excited about. The wheezing base-model Solstice just about unseated the Mazda MX-5 Miata in a comparison test, and the GXP handily deposes the former king.

The Solstice is possibly not quite as visually fetching as the Saturn Sky, but it's still a hot sister. Despite the same 260 ponies, when equipped with a manual transmission the Solstice GXP and Sky Red Line are almost a half-second slower to 60 mph than their automatic counterparts. Launching a five-speed-manual GXP requires tremendous finesse and some luck. Leave the line with too few revs, and you bog; use too many or be harsh with clutch engagement, and the tires go up in smoke. This is familiar territory for anything with a turbocharged engine driving two wheels. Moreover, 60 mph is reached in third gear, and the extra shift is no friend to quick times. Tight gearing does, however, make it a cinch to keep the engine on full boil, and gear selection, not possible with the automatic, is a winding-road requirement.

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Flaws such as lack of storage, hard interior plastics, and cumbersome top operation don't offer much of an argument in the face of handsome lines, a grin-inducing chassis, and 260 horsepower.

For all the coolness of a car that goes 180 mph, that has about as much relevance to the average driver in this country as a 180-foot yacht. Accelerating from a start, on the other hand, is sort of legal in every state in the U.S., barring law-enforcement officers with an inflated sense of purpose (don't ask how we know about "Unsafe Start" statutes).

Below are the 10 quickest vehicles available with a base price between $25K and $30K, ranked in order of 0-to-60-mph time. Ties were settled first by quarter-mile time, then by which was quicker to the highest speed both cars achieved (usually 120 or 130 mph), in that order. Most cars at this price point offer basic luxury or at least decent amenities and looks in addition to speed, as buck-banger boy-racer models are thousands less, maybe having something to do with the fact that burger-flipper wages haven't budged in nine years.

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There's an arms race among auto manufacturers, with weapons of displacement, compression, and boost being waged segment- and industry-wide. It's no surprise that most entries in this list are not cut from traditional sports-car cloth; of the 10 vehicles here, one is an SUV and six have four or more doors.

We were sold the moment Mazda told us the company intended to stuff more power and all-wheel drive into the frisky 6 sedan. Mazda is better than most at making full dynamic use of every pony, and the Mazdaspeed 6 is no exception. Plenty of power is on tap -- the 2.3-liter, turbocharged and direct-injected four-cylinder engine offers 270 horsepower and is a reminder how far Mazda's piston engines have progressed in the last decade, from cast-iron-block dinosaurs to top-shelf powerplants.

There are all-wheel-drive systems designed to prevent getting stuck in a snowdrift or pile of cow pucky, and there are those that work to help you go faster. We appreciate the former, dig the latter. The Mazdaspeed 6's all-wheel drive features an electromechanical wet-clutch pack, and when combinations of wheel slip, steering angle, lateral g, and the like are met, a computer can send up to half of the available 280 lb-ft of torque to the rear tires. The system doesn't create anything like lurid and lovely oversteer, but it is an effective antidote for killjoy understeer.

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The Mazdaspeed 6's greatest enemy is its nearly 3600-pound curb weight, which it admittedly packs tight to its chest. Short gears, a short final drive, and a six-speed box means your left foot works to extract maximum grunt, but given the rush of acceleration, it's never a chore.

The Mazdaspeed 6 costs nearly as much as an Evo or an STI but is not as extreme; it costs less than a pimped-out A4 Quattro but doesn't offer Audi's cachet. Instead, it sits somewhere in the middle, offering Mazda-authentic gusto, commendable comfort, and slick styling.

Bold moves happen in this car every day, the kind that get you arrested. There are some vehicles with undeniable purpose. Flatbed trucks carry stuff, Escalades abet social posturing, and the Mustang GT facilitates hooliganism. The Brits get football (soccer); we get 300 horsepower, rear-wheel drive, and an easily disengaged traction-control system. If you allow air between your right foot and the floorpan in first gear, however, the Mustang GT is the second-quickest car in this group. It's also the thriftiest, offering a sub-14-second quarter-mile time for just over $26K.

Ford couldn't afford a misstep with its pony car and didn't risk much, mechanically or aesthetically, with one of its perennial bestsellers. There's not much new about the 4.6-liter modular V-8, but that doesn't matter, because it makes heaps of power and torque for cheap. FoMoCo has had quite awhile to figure out the whole live-axle thing, using that design since the Mustang's introduction in 1964. They've finally attached the solid axle to a chassis stiff enough to make a responsive handler. Ford nailed the Mustang's redesign-macho enough for contractors, cute enough for secretaries, undeniably American, and timeless. More importantly, it looks just as good with the rear fenders obscured by tire smoke.

The mighty Lancer Evo IX, Mitsubishi's Cinderella, launches onto this list as the quickest and most expensive vehicle, barely making the $30K cut. And this is for the stripper RS version (sheds weight, not clothes), which foregoes amenities such as power windows and locks, a radio, sound deadening, and the gigantesque rear wing. Most every superlative has been showered on the Evo family barring "beautiful," and it remains one of the most delicious driving machines money can buy, at any price.

The Evo is quick, but it barely squeaked its way onto this list. Technically, there are no 2007 Evos (as we await the '08 Evo X, due in about a year), but Mitsubishi officials assured us that there are plenty of 2006s still available, so here it is.

We posted a 5.1-second 0-to-60 time, a slower figure than earlier cars, in which we've gotten to 60 mph in the four-second range. Optimal launches require quite a bit of clutch slip, and as soon as Mitsubishi announced its company-wide 10-year mechanical warranty, the Evo received a 5000-rpm rev limiter when stopped to promote a less warranty-involving launch.

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The World Rally Championship, for which the Evo was born, features standing starts, so the AWD drivetrain is up to the abuse; there, 7000-rpm clutch drops are the norm. The Evo packs just two liters of displacement (stemming from FIA rally regulations), every cubic centimeter of which is packed with up to an astonishing 20.1 psi of compressed air and fuel via a twin-scroll turbocharger. Assisted by MIVEC variable valve timing, the engine produces 286 horsepower and 289 lb-ft of torque, distributed by a five- or six-speed transmission, a transfer case, and any of three limited-slip differentials.

All that power is mated to an unexpected four-door chassis (you may remember the econocar Mirage), fitted with a superb unequal-length control-arm, forged-aluminum suspension; sticky Yokohama Advan tires; and Brembo brakes on all four corners.

Mashing the accelerator going straight will impress you less than squeezing the throttle on corner exit, the car meeting your request with equal parts dreamy steering, endless grip, and gut-churning thrust.